仙酔島
瀬戸内海に面した鞆の浦に面して浮かぶ仙酔島は井堂雅夫の祖先が暮らした広島県福山市にある周囲6㎞の小さな島です。
瀬戸内海で海上交易の船が風と潮の流れを頼りに進んでいた頃、西の豊後水道と東の紀伊半島の潮流がぶつかる潮の分かれ目になっていた鞆の浦は、満ち潮になると船が停泊し引き潮になると出航する「潮待ちの港」として栄え、国内外の人々の交流により先進的な歴史と文化が集まる地域でした。
井堂雅夫は「自身は三つの土地からもらった遺伝子で出来ている」と語っていました。戦争直後の混乱の中で生を受けた中国大陸、大自然に囲まれ感性を育まれた岩手、そして祖先が命を繫いできたルーツ福山、そのどれが欠けても今の自分はいないと言う思いを持ち続け創作を続けました。
瀬戸内に登る朝の光が海面の色を刻々と変え、漁に出る小舟を出迎えているかのような風景を描きながら、井堂雅夫は遺伝子の力が自身をここに導いて来ていることを感じていたのかもしれません。
Blog post
Sep. 2024
“Sensui-jima Island”
Sensui-jima Island, located in Tomonoura facing the Seto Inland Sea, is a small island with a circumference of 6 km in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, where Masao Ido's ancestors lived.
When ships used to rely on the wind and tidal currents to navigate the Seto Inland Sea, Tomonoura prospered as a “tidal waiting port” where ships docked when the tide was high and sailed when the tide was low, and where advanced history and culture gathered as people from Japan and abroad interacted with each other. It was a region where advanced history and culture gathered as a result of exchanges between people from Japan and abroad.
Masao Ido said, “I am made of genes from three lands. The Chinese mainland, where he was born in the chaos immediately after the war, Iwate, where he was surrounded by nature and nurtured his sensitivity, and Fukuyama, where his ancestors connected their lives, all of which he feels he would not be where he is today without.
Masao Ido may have felt the power of his genes guiding him here as he painted this scene, where the morning light on the Seto Inland Sea changes the color of the sea surface from moment to moment, as if welcoming small boats out for fishing.
